Established in 1953, Starday Records quickly became one of the premier
independent country labels of the 1950s. Specializing in hardcore honky tonk and
rockabilly, Starday released some of the wildest rockabilly of the 1950s and
launched the career of country music superstar George Jones. When label co-owner
"Pappy" Daily sold out to his partner Don Pierce in 1958, country music was
transitioning to a slicker, pop-oriented sound. Pierce chose a different path,
targeting a still-thriving market for LPs of traditional country music and such
niche genres as bluegrass and steel guitar instrumentals. Over the next 10
years, Pierce built Starday into the largest independent country label in the
world through a massive mail order operation and a rack jobber distribution
network placing Starday's distinctive-looking LPs in truck stops and rural
markets across the United States. Modern Harmonic is proud to begin its
exploration of the vast and eccentric Starday catalog with classic steel guitar
instrumental long players.

Pete Drake began his career on the steel guitar at the age of 18 and quickly
gained a reputation as one of the top country instrumentalists in Atlanta,
Georgia. Moving to Nashville in 1959, Drake backed Audrey Williams, Marty
Robbins, and Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper on the road before jumping into session
work. Drake's reputation as an instrumentalist continued to grow throughout the
1960s with high profile work on scores of country records as well as on albums
by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Drake also stepped
forward as a technical innovator through his invention of the "talk box", a
device that simulated human speech through a steel or electric guitar, later
used by Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Roger Troutman, and Jeff Beck.

In 1962, Drake cut his first album of instrumentals, The Fabulous Steel Guitar
Sound of Pete Drake, at Starday's Madison, Tennessee studio, writing a dozen
original tunes for the album, ranging from the playful swing of "For Pete's
Sake" to the honky tonk shuffle of "Loves I've Known" to the hip jazz menace of
"The Spook", and on through the hillbilly cosmic in the album closer, "Galaxie",
in which Drake trades licks with steel guitar legend, "Little" Roy Wiggins.

Mastered from the original analog mono reels and pressed on red vinyl, Modern
Harmonic brings this essential U.S. steel from Nashville to your record
collection!